Coalitions of the Standing Around

Today, President Obama is having a press conference on the anti-IS/ISIL/ISIS/Daesh War.  It is good timing for me as I am finishing a paper that looks at the coalition.  As always, the coalition is claimed to be bigger than it really is:

“Our 66-member coalition, including Arab partners, is on the offensive.”-@POTUS. https://t.co/7lR4tSfJu1 pic.twitter.com/dWDDFZdexs

— WH National Security (@NSC44) April 13, 2016

My task in the paper is to not just note that only 22 countries are doing something in the theatre, but to explain the variation among the contributors.  I am not going to give away my findings, but I will provide one hint:

The Dave and Steve explanation of multilateral military operations does so-so.

Anyhow, back to the press conference, where we give heaps of kudos to countries doing the least they can do or even less than that.